A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies

In late winter I had the chance to hear author Ellen Cooney read excerpts from her latest book, A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies.I was instantly transported into the world of Charlotte Heath and turn of the century Boston. To me, a good novel does just that, takes me away from the day to day humdrum, into another place. Heroine Charlotte left her philandering husband, after she recovered from a year long illness. She checked into a "reverse brothel", where the women guests get more than a mint on the pillow with the bedtime turn down service. I could natter on, but a few important things. Ms. Cooney's reading was fabulous. She breathed life into her quirky and beautifully drawn characters. I loved the way she shared the characters' thoughts, giving me an inside view and insight into their beings. Her question and answers after the reading conveyed a down home demeanor and also an unbelievable brilliance. Her personna is like her characters-witty, smart, reflective, self knowing, gracious. She is a natural and gifted teacher. Don't miss Ellen Cooney the next time she comes to a local book store to read. I liked that Ms. Cooney's latest work left me pondering. I am not sure her aim was social commentary, but more to tell a good story. I identified with Charlotte. Who hasn't, after being betrayed, tried to come to terms with and try to understand what led up to a relationship ending? But also, I wonder, how different are the women of the 21st century from Charlotte? Some 30 years after the women's movement, are women more free or more bound and limited by the expectations of others? At any rate, do read A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies, Ellen Cooney's best so far.

If you are looking for "slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am" sex or gratuitous action-packed scenes at every turn or slapstick sophomoric humor, this book is not for you. On the other hand, if you enjoy immersing yourself in a delightful world filled with richly drawn characters, this is the book for you. Charlotte, the main character, embarks upon a journey, initially to escape her husband's betrayal and his stifling family. Along the way she meets some fascinating characters and through her experiences gains a strong sense of her place in the turn-of-the-(last)-century world on her own terms. Cooney's prose is embued with such a rich texture that one can practically hear the frost crinkle during the blizzard and one literally and physically feels Charlotte's frozen world thaw along with the ice and snow. I could feel my own shoulders relax! The book is quite humorous and I chuckled often, laughing out loud at the town "racing scene". Come to think of it, one might label that scene as slapstick - I had images of little Charlie Chaplins... All in all, a great read, highly recommended!

Former invalid Charlotte Heath runs away from home when she finds her husband with another woman. She seeks and finds refuge in a most unusual hotel in Boston --- a reverse brothel. There she eventually comes to terms with what it is she really wants out of life. The story begins in the early twentieth century at the Heath estate, which is located near Boston. The Heaths are a wealthy and very-well connected family, and they all reside in one huge compound. Charlotte, who came from an impoverished background, finds this family togetherness stifling at times, especially since her husband Hays often seems to prefer the company of his family over spending time alone with her. Hays is very controlling and is always watching Charlotte as though he doesn't quite approve of her. Charlotte continually feels that she doesn't measure up to the Heaths' expectations. Then Charlotte contracts polio and is quickly and conveniently whisked away, out of sight, to a sickroom that further isolates her from Hays, the Heaths, and the outside world. She spends most of a year bedridden. During that long confinement Charlotte learns to be very still and wait, though she is uncertain just what it is she expects to occur. Mostly, she imagines what might be going on in the outside world. She has a rather peculiar imagination and often imagines events from two completely different perspectives as though she can't really make up her mind which one might be correct. Once she has recuperated from nearly a year in her sickbed, she is out one brisk, snowy day with her buggy and favorite team of horses. She accidentally spots Hays across the street having a rather intimate, stolen moment with a strange woman. Charlotte is bewildered and upset. Determined not to return to the confines of the Heath estate or to her husband, whom she believes has betrayed her, she literally runs away to a hotel in Boston she had heard of from the family cook who sometimes worked there. Charlotte knew the name of the hotel but not its secrets. The Beechmont is a classy Boston hotel with a definite aura of secrecy about it. The staff is sworn to silence so the guests can enjoy their much-sought after privacy. Besides the maids and a rather eccentric doorman, most of the rest of the "staff" are handsome young men who entertain the Beechmont guests according to the whims and pleasures of those guests. Charlotte becomes acquainted with a few of the hotel residents and is quite surprised that the doctor, Hays's aunt, who treated Charlotte during her period of confinement, is actually a regular guest at the Beechmont. Aunt Lily promises to keep Charlotte's whereabouts a secret. Charlotte meets a few of the "staff" and comes to know one of the young men, a medical student who is working his way through college at The Beechmont, rather intimately. She also gets involved in the personal lives of some of the peculiar occupants of the hotel. There is a detective-type outside, across the street, watching

What I like best in any book is great character development, and this book's fabulous characters sprang to life in just a sentence or two, making it hard to put the book down. It must be this author's particular gift, because she has made even her minor characters real - and unforgettable - in just a few words. I wanted to dive right into the pages, go back in time, visit old Boston and the imaginary world that became so real. A Private Hotel was a pleasure to read, and I can't wait to share it.

She thought she was Cinderella when she married the son of a wealthy family. However, Charlotte hates where she lives, her husband's family mansion where his relatives are everywhere criticizing everything she does. Already in disfavor with her in-laws for not producing the next generation, Charlotte becomes so ill she is unable to leave her room for almost a year. When she finally leaves, she finds her husband enjoying the pleasures of a woman. Unhappy and disappointed in his betrayal, Charlotte has no place to go in puritanical 1900 Massachusetts except to see former family cook Mrs. Petty, who now works in Boston's Beechmont, A PRIVATE HOTEL FOR GENTLE LADIES. With no options, Charlotte stays there. Eventually she realizes that this is no hotel or shelter for single women, but a place where males of all ages and shapes visit the female guests to pleasure them. However she wonders if she can be one of them as she reflects on her childhood and with her husband and his family. Ellen Cooney paints an astute historical character study driven by Charlotte who breaks out of her web as she becomes aware that her past, her in-laws, a betrayal, and her illness (polio) does not prevent her from becoming a desirable woman. The story line looks deep into the present and past of Charlotte, enabling the audience to understand how the child makes the adult especially her inhibitions and doubts; however these passages also abruptly occur disjointing the otherwise keen story line somewhat. Still readers will find A PRIVATE HOTEL FOR GENTLE WOMEN an appealing discerning period piece. Harriet Klausner